


Hypothesis

by grlgoddess



Category: Enchanted Forest Chronicles - Patricia Wrede
Genre: F/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 17:29:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1096586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grlgoddess/pseuds/grlgoddess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Telemain gets into a scrape, and Morwen has to save him from himself. So, business as usual.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hypothesis

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wei](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wei/gifts).



"Morwen, I think you had better go to the stream," Chestnut said, the cat's white fur shining in the mid-afternoon sun, as she sauntered past.

"Why? What is it?" Morwen asked.

"Telemain."

"Oh, what has he done now?"

"See for yourself," the cat said, and continued on her way. Morwen had no choice but to walk down to the stream and see whatever mess Telemain had gotten himself into now.

 

She heard him struggling before she rounded the bend that put him in her sight.

"Stop struggling, you're only making it worse," she said.

"Morwen? I - aagh -have things perfectly under control."

"Clearly," she said, looking pointedly at the tangled bush that was coiling itself around him, foiling any attempt he made to get out of it.

"It's just a simple matter of - ah -"

"Of being still for half a moment. What were you trying to do, anyway?" she asked as she went to get a closer look at the offending shrubbery.

"I was attempting to ascertain the interactions between an invisibility shroud and the peculiar properties of the Thornorous Snare."

"I hope you at least found something useful. Now hold still."

"Useful! Only that -"

"Shh!" Morwen said, and drew a circle in the air with her right hand, then slashed through the unseen circle with her left. "By the power from its roots, By the flame that sets it loose, Let the flora cease it's use!"

At her words, the bush ceased its movement, and Telemain was able to escape unhindered.

"Well that was certainly - "

"You're welcome. Now let's get you cleaned up. Most of those scratches aren't bad, but I don't want them to get infected."

"I can't leave! Your spell is interacting with mine on top of the Snare's and I must see how that adds to the inherent properties of the Snare. It's already starting to display characteristics uncommon to those of the Snare family." Sure enough, the leaves that had so recently entrapped him were now attempting to float on the breeze, despite their usual density. It was intriguing, certainly, but if Morwen let Telemain examine that, he'd find another six aspects of the plant he'd want to thoroughly inspect, and they'd be there until nightfall. At which point, he'd attempt to recreate his experiments to test how the lack of sunlight affected the spells.

So she grabbed his arm and, gently, pulled him away,

"Ow!" he yelped.

"See? You need to get those scratches looked at."

"Why can't you look at them while I work?"

"By the time I brought back my supplies, you'd have half of them covered in dirt and it would take me twice as long to fix them. The longer you spend arguing, the longer I keep you from your so very important work."

"It is important! If I can determine the velocity of the transference, I could -"

"You could describe its significance while you walk." He grumbled a little, but nonetheless set off. He couldn't resist describing his process to someone who actually listened to him. Morwen noticed that he was walking a bit slower than he usually did - the scratches alone shouldn't've hurt him that much. It was good she didn't let him brush his injuries off.

His slightly slowed pace did not hider his enthusiastic description of his experiment. She had to agree that if his hypothesis panned out, it would be a rather notable discovery. Of course, confirming the hypothesis involved keeping the magician conducting the test from being killed by the plant life.

 

They were staying in a middle-sized tower just outside the Mountains of Morning, along with a handful of other witches and one or two magicians. The nearby village was hosting a witches convention, and some magicians, including Telemain, had been invited to attend. Most attendees had decided against staying in the village itself, and opted to rent out some rooms. Being so close to the Mountains of Morning, many of them had also wanted some seclusion to make use of the Mountains' specific properties. Thus, the tower was deserted when they arrived, with everyone else out working.

Morwen sat Telemain down at the kitchen table, and stop listening to his increasingly detailed theorizing. One of the perks of rooming with several other magic users was that she had pretty much any ingredient she needed within her reach. One of the downsides was that there was no less than four different types of organizational systems trying to be used, leaving everything in an even worse state of organization than if it had been left intentionally unorganized. She eventually found what she needed, with only a few substitutions. Telemain stopped talking to pay attention to her spellcasting, as watching someone else work magic was one of the few things that might stop him from talking about it.

"That's not what you usually use for healing open wounds," he said.

"No it's not," she said, and continued with her mixture.

"Well then what are you doing?" he asked, and started to stand to get a better look at what she was doing.

"Sit," she said, ignoring his questions.

"I have a right to know what magic you're intending to use on me."

"No you don't, you're just being pathologically curious."

He harumphed, but asked no more questions. Once her bowl began to smoke slightly, she took his hand, palm up, and used a swan feather to brush the concoction over some of the worst scratches. The liquid began to smoke, turned dark grey, then solidified into a ball. The ball rolled in Telemain's hand, then suddenly exploded into nothing.

"Hmm, that's what I thought," Morwen said, frowning, then wandered back to look for more ingredients.

"I take it that's not good."

"Not unless you consider being poisoned good, no. Then again, you might."

"I certainly would not consider being poisoned good. What kind of poison?"

"As far as I can tell, it's from that plant. I don't know enough about Thornorous Snare's to know how much of the poison is your fault."

"That plant wasn't full grown, only full grown Snare's can have poisonous effects, and even then only if certain environmental factors are present, which they weren't."

"Well, evidently your spell was a ready substitute for those factors, because the poison's there. Hopefully you didn't create any more terrible side effects for yourself," she said, and returned to her mixing. She said the couplet, and the bowl lit up with blue fire. She ladled out a glass for Telemain, and gave it to him. "Drink this. All of it."

"I know, I know," he said, and downed the glass under her watchful eye. As he set the glass down, his many cuts began to release a light grey vapour. The vapour quickly was dispersed harmlessly in the air - the poison gone.

"Good. Now that that's done, I can work on your cuts," she said, finding the healing salve and some bandages.

"I'm fine, really."

"If I listened to you every time you said that, you'd be dead by now. Several times over, in fact."

"Very well, get on with it. I want to see how long the transformation lasts and if the environmental factors alone can shift the Thornorous back to its previous state."

"You're not going back to the poisonous plant to test if it's still poisonous. I don't think we have enough ingredients for that counterspell," she said as she sat beside him to wrap his hand in the salve-soaked bandage.

Instead of the argument she was expecting, he leaned in and kissed her.

"So that's how it is," she said.

"I trust my hypothesis was correct," he said and grinned. She looked at him over her glasses.

"You're still not going back to that plant," she said, and he grumbled.

But they were both smiling, and that was probably the least argumentative evening the pair of them had ever spent together.


End file.
